Apparently this is to reduce “customer confusion” which killed off sales of its first-generation Surface RT model. Apparently customers thought that the expensive tablet could run Windows. That particular fiasco cost Microsoft $900 million in fiscal Q4 2013. Removing the "RT" will supposedly help alleviate that confusion even though Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 use two different architectures.

The new Surface 2 will feature a 10.6 inch ClearType 5-point screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, powered by Nvidia's Tegra 4 SoC, 2 GB of RAM and Windows RT 8.1. Other features will include a 3.5MP camera on the front, a 5MP camera on the back, an SD card reader, Wireless N and Bluetooth connectivity, HDMI output, 32 GB or 64 GB of internal storage, and more.

The problem for Redmond is that customers might even be more confused if they try to run an ARM version of the tablet and still can’t run favorite x86-based desktop apps.